Rick Hendrick's Generosity

Rick Hendrick, owner of several NASCAR teams and Hendrick Motorsports, and Chairman & CEO of Hendrick Automotive Group, came to visit "the new" City Chevrolet on Friday, November 13, 2009. City Chevrolet has recently experienced a "face lift." With mandates from Chevrolet on making all the Chevy stores look uniform, in addition to a little work that needed to be done, since City has been at its current location since 1966 without too many major renovations, we've had plenty of changes occur throughout the dealership over the past month.

While Mr. Hendrick (see photo above, first from right) was here, he got to chatting with Elizabeth Hastings (above, second from right) and her 9-year old son Andrew (above, second from left), who were purchasing a 2004 Suburban from Larry McCain (above, first from left). Elizabeth was expressing her gratitude to the team at City Chevrolet, specifically Larry McCain (salesperson), Bruce Forret (Pre-Owned Sales Director), and Jerry Ferrell (General Manager), for their assitance in helping her get the SUV she's been wanting.

The Hastings family has quite a story. Two years ago, son, Andrew, was hit (literally) by a car. Andrew lost his leg, and since then, has had 10 surgeries. His last surgery was in March of this year. Unfortunately, Elizabeth's husband, Sargeant Robert Hastings, had left for Iraq 2 days prior to Andrew's surgery and is still currently serving overseas. Andrew has a prosthetic leg and has had to have 8 prosthetics over the past two years, since he has to get a new one after each surgery and also as he grows. He is due to have at least 1 more surgery. In addition, Elizabeth Hastings is fighting Cancer.

Elizabeth tells us that Andrew has been asking for a Suburban for the past 2 years. He kept saying "We're never going to get a Suburban!" Needless to say, Andrew was surprised and delighted when they came in to finally get their Suburban. The Hastings have 3 children and the Suburban is much needed. Salesperson Larry McCain assured Elizabeth, "If it's the last thing on Earth I do, I'll get you a Suburban."

Elizabeth told Rick Hendrick this story when he was in here that day and Mr. Hendrick did something that took the breath away from Elizabeth and Andrew...he paid for their Suburban! As if meeting Rick Hendrick and having him pose for a couple pictures with her son wasn't exciting enough that day, they now had the Suburban of their dreams and it was already paid for. This is just one more thing that further displays the generosity displayed by Rick Hendrick. When I asked Elizabeth what she felt, she said, "It's amazing how God has been right there holding my hand through this ordeal. Andrew got hit and saw an angel on the side of the road. From that day, I knew that God was with us through the whole experience."